


What Are Morals, Anyways?

by bluemandycat



Category: Archvillain Series - Barry Lyga
Genre: M/M, Personality Swap, kyle never went to the past au, loosely based on nerds book 4, the relationship isn't that big
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 12:12:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5927937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluemandycat/pseuds/bluemandycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When people's moral values start changing, Mighty Mike and the Blue Freak (along with a newly-reformed Jack Stanley) must team up and join forces with a group of other young supervillains in order to solve this crisis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Are Morals, Anyways?

**Author's Note:**

> EXTREMELY loosely based on NERDS Book 4, The Villain Virus.

            Kyle was hanging out in the Mad Mask’s old lab, trying to organize a _lot_ of supervillain stuff in what he hoped could be an auxiliary workshop space, when Mighty Mike flew into the workshop carrying a blonde boy in his arms. Papers blew everywhere (ugh, like he hadn’t done enough cleaning already), as Mike landed, and promptly dropped the boy on what little floor space wasn’t covered in boxes and junk.

 

            Kyle opened his mouth to yell at Mike, to ask him how the hell he found this lab, to ask who this civilian was, but before he could collect his thoughts and feel anything beyond a general sense of anger (although, to be fair, he usually felt that way around Mike), the boy who Mike had so unscrupulously dropped on the floor was scrambling to his feet and beaming at Kyle. Kyle started as he got a good look at his face.

 

            Even though he had only seen his unmasked face once, Kyle would know the Mad Mask anywhere, mostly because of the mixed feelings that Kyle always seemed to contract when he was around and yelling threats from somewhere inside that mask of his. Which added to the surreal-ness of the whole situation: what had happened to make the Mad Mask voluntarily take off his mask? (Kyle knew it was voluntary, because the Mad Mask seemed perfectly happy and not at all a wreck, like the first time Kyle had seen him unmasked). Kyle had tussled with him, on occasion, but ever since the Ultitron incident, he hadn’t seen the Mad Mask ever take off his mask. Even when Kyle had stalwartly refused to give back the mask that he had stolen from him, the Mad Mask had just made a new one, out of scrap metal from Ultitron. Kyle had pretty much given up on trying to rehabilitate him into a normal life, and just kind of accepted the fact that the Mad Mask would always be, well, the Mad Mask.

 

            The Mad Mask jumped up to his feet, grinning and looking only slightly annoyed that he had been dropped on the floor, and bounded up to Kyle. Kyle braced himself for the attack that would surely follow, god, it was _just like_ Mike to gang up on him with the Mad Mask.

 

            To his surprise, he found himself being picked up, hugged, and swung back and forth. “Hi, Blue Freak! It’s nice to see you again!” said the Mad Mask. This definitely wasn’t the greeting Kyle had expected to get. When the Mad Mask put him down, Kyle held himself at arms length from the taller boy, and really took a good look at his face, if only to preserve the image in his head.

 

            “You’re wearing glasses,” said Kyle, a little shell-shocked. In both the period that they had worked together and the period they had fought each other, the Mad Mask had never shown any signs of needing glasses, particularly not big, square, nerdy glasses. He chose this to focus on, instead of the fact that the boy who had tried to kill him had just given him a big hug and told him he missed him.

 

            “Oh, heh, yeah,” said the Mad Mask, rubbing the back of his neck and looking a little embarrassed. “I never wore them because they wouldn’t fit under the mask and I was afraid that I’d look stupid for wearing them over a mask. But I’ve just recently realized that that was a really stupid excuse for being overdramatic, and wearing my glasses and being able to see things far away was more important than my pride.”

 

            Kyle turned to Mike, who gave him a pained look. “What the hell did you do to him?” Kyle exclaimed angrily. Mike took this as his cue to start speaking really really fast, like he was stressed out.

 

            “Listen to me, we’re in a little bit of a crisis, and I’m not sure how to deal with it. Something’s happening to people. People’s personalities are going all over the place, and it’s happening to enough people that I know it can’t be their own doing. It started–”

 

            “How did you even find this lab?” Kyle interjected angrily, still a little peeved about getting burst in on, even though it was a crisis.

 

            “Not important. Listen to me. It started out this morning, when one of my best friends started telling me how I was a detriment to the earth and started talking about how the world needed fixing by a real hero. I thought she had just gotten into a fight with someone or something, but then in class the teacher gave a lecture of the horrors of the world and how nobody was doing enough to combat them, and the whole time she and the rest of the class would stop occasionally and glare at me, like it was my fault. The sheriff pulled me out of class and yelled at me for making mistakes and not being out patrolling during school hours. It’s like everyone’s just done a complete 180 on their worldview.”

 

            Kyle laughed. “So everyone’s finally wised up to you and your intentions, huh? Doesn’t really seem like a problem to me, and certainly doesn’t sound like anything unnatural.”

 

            Mike shook his head. “I thought that it was a conscious choice, too, but then I went out patrolling, and guess who was there and hugged me and told me I was doing a great job of protecting the world?” He gestured to the Mad Mask.

 

            “Oh. Well. I can understand the entire town realizing that you’re pretty much irrelevant to everyone’s safety, but the Mad Mask is pretty set in his ways, so this _might_ be a cause for alarm.”

 

            The Mad Mask frowned. “Blue Freak, I would really appreciate it if you called me Jack, as calling me the Mad Mask just reminds me of all the bad I have done so far and have only recently come to regret.” Mike gave Kyle a _‘you see what I have had to put up with?’_ look.

 

            Kyle shrugged. “This doesn’t seem that bad. So, a few people are angry with you. Why should I care? The most I’ll have to deal with is ‘Happy Jack’ over here.”

 

            Mike made an angry sound. “There isn’t one person you would care about if their personality suddenly changed, and stayed permanent? I know you’re human inside that hood, Blue Freak. Besides, if it can happen to Jack, it can happen to you too. Do you really want your whole identity thrust on its head?”

 

            Kyle groaned internally. As much as he hated to admit it, the idea of Mairi or his parents suddenly becoming totally different people _really_ freaked him out. Besides, he didn’t much care for the idea of him suddenly wanting to hug people and apologize. Even though he was pretty much resigned to the fact that he was going to have to team up with his two worst enemies, he still had one question.

 

            “Why me? Why couldn’t you have just taken somebody who hasn’t been affected yet?”

 

            “Because you’re a supervillain,” Mike said.

 

            “Huh?”

 

            “If you contract whatever the heck is causing this while we’re working together, you won’t go ballistic and try to fight me because you suddenly hate me, because you already hate me. The worst I’ll have to deal with is you liking me and wanting to help me even more. Besides, you’re pretty smart, which is a good thing to have on my side when fighting an inexplicable enemy.”

 

            Kyle had to admit, Mike was being sensible (and, okay, the compliment certainly didn’t harm his chances). “What if you get it first?”

 

            “You’ve fought me and hurt me before. I have no idea how I would react, whether I’d go full supervillain or just hate myself, but either way, you should be able to knock me out before I cause too much harm,” Mike said, flat and business-like.

 

            Kyle mulled it over, noting Mike’s size and strength, as well as his emotional state. Finally, after collecting his thoughts, he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I can help you with this. Not by myself, though. I have friends. Supervillain friends. From out of town.” He paused, and grabbed Erasmus from the makeshift workbench. “I can contact them, organize an emergency meeting. They might be able to help. Anyways, it’ll be easier to figure it out with more people.”

 

            Mike nodded. “Sounds great. Any chance we can leave Jack here?”

 

            Kyle shook his head. “Nah, we’ll need him, as a living subject. To test what effects this might have on him.” He looked over at Jack, suddenly self-conscious of how rude he was being by speaking about him like he wasn’t here. “I mean, if you’re okay with that.”

 

            Jack smiled. “I just want to help. If it means me being a test subject, then so be it.”

 

            Kyle stared. “Sorry, this is going to take a little bit of getting used to for me. It’s a little weird seeing you so…peppy.”

 

            “Take all the time you need! I’m just glad we can coexist.”

 

            “Um, hate to interrupt,” said Mike. “But could we maybe set some ground rules or something? None of us are really good friends and I don’t want this partnership turning violent unless it needs to.”

 

            “None of us are really good friends YET,” said Jack.

 

            “Right, that makes sense,” said Kyle. “Okay, rule number 1, no betrayals.”

 

            “I feel like that’s implied in a partnership, though,” said Mike.

 

            “You’d be surprised at the partnerships I’ve had,” muttered Kyle, shooting a dark look at Jack. Jack noticed and raised his hands up in a _‘don’t shoot!’_ way.

 

            “I told you, I’m trying to be a better person!” he yelped.

 

            Kyle chose to ignore him, and continued. “Rule number two, stay in costume at all times. These are supervillains. They are the last people that want to reveal their civilian identities. And yes, this goes for you, too,” he said, pointing at Jack. “I guess you get to wear your original mask again. Lucky you.”

 

            “Oh no, I am not putting that thing on. You can’t make me,” said Jack, crossing his arms.

 

            “But Jack, you love this mask,” said Kyle, rummaging around in a box full of costume stuff trying to find it.

 

            “Blue, that mask is a testament to every single bad decision I have ever made. I don’t want to hurt you, but you can’t force me to embrace that part of my identity.”

 

            Kyle sighed. “Okay, Plan B, then.” He rummaged a little more in the boxes, until he pulled out a purple cape with a mask connected to the hood. He dimly recalled making it as a back up, and then never using it. He tossed it to Jack. “Put this on. You _do not_ want to show your face to supervillains.” Jack took off his glasses and put it on, making him look a little bit less like a normal kid and a little bit more like a supervillain wearing a graphic t-shirt and jeans. Jack peered around.

 

            “Ugh, everything’s all blurry. Fair warning, I might put my glasses over the mask at some point.”

 

            Kyle nodded once, even though he secretly thought that that would make him look really stupid. “But I’m still calling you the Mad Mask while we’re there, because I can’t keep track of another code name for you.”

 

            Jack shrugged. “Fair is fair. You let me not wear the mask, you can call me the Mad Mask.” Then he grinned. “Although, saying it out loud makes it sound _really_ ironic.”

 

            “Um, can we get a move on?” said Mike, who looked a little peeved. “Crisis on our hands, and whatnot?”

 

            Kyle nodded and texted the group chat. Within seconds he got a response from each person, and he smiled. “Alright, team. Let’s go meet the Pantheon of Moral Ambiguousness.”

 

            Mike laughed. “They sound really pretentious.”

 

            “They sound really nice. But evil. But nice!” said Jack.

 

            “Yeah, well, I guess I’ll let you be the judge of that,” Kyle said, already realizing that this was going to be a long day.

**Author's Note:**

> comments/kudos/constructive critisism are always appreciated!


End file.
